1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates generally to imaging devices, and more particularly to devices used to separate developer units from photoconductive drums in an imaging device.
2. Description of the Related Art
For an electro-photographic printer that utilizes a contact nip between photoconductor (PC) drum and developer rolls in an electrophotographic imaging device to produce a toned image onto media, it is a common practice to physically separate contact interfaces during packaging and shipping of the printer. This separation helps to prevent out-of-box delivery failures to the imaging system components, such as developer roll compression set and cold toner fusion roll defects. For a monochrome imaging device there is typically one PC drum-developer roll contact nip. For a color imaging device, there are four such contact nips—one each for yellow, cyan, magenta, and black.
To ameliorate these concerns, in the prior art, a separator mechanism for spacing the PC drum from the developer roll was inserted prior to packaging and shipping of the imaging device. While automatic control of this separating mechanism is possible, it is generally considered too cost-prohibitive, and/or requires too much additional space within the imaging device housing. Therefore, prior art embodiments have used disposable packaging materials to hold the PC drum developer roll interface in its separated state during shipping. These materials are then removed during initial un-boxing and set-up of the imaging device by the end user to allow contact between the PC drum and developer roll. However, such embodiments do have the drawback of requiring the end user to perform this set-up operation, as opposed to the benefit of having the action being automatic and transparent to the end user. There is also the added concern regarding the status of these imaging components should the printer need to be re-packaged and reshipped after the initial set-up. For example, imaging devices may be centrally configured in bulk by a given customer, such as a pharmacy chain or bank, and then later be re-distributed to various locations.
Ideally, when reshipping is needed, the contact nip is re-separated to help prevent roll defects. However, there is a question of how the separation is to be achieved should the packaging materials have been disposed of or are unavailable. It would be an improvement over the prior art if the separating mechanism remained with the imaging device and could be reset should reshipping be needed. It would be advantageous if resetting could be done without having to rely on reinserting removable and possibly disposable packaging materials or require the use of special tools. It would be further advantageous to be able to place the PC drum and developer roll into contact when the system is to be ready for printing without additional user actions.